Irish and Scottish links with the city are well documentated, but the story of the Welsh in Liverpool is often overlooked. Indeed its very name is thought to have come from 'Lle'r pwll' - that is 'the place of the pool'.
Liverpool is a Maritime City, and its began this tradition transporting Welsh Slate from Conway. As the port grew it attracted many peoples from the surrounding area in search of work. This is illustrated by the large number of both Lancastrian and Welsh surnames still evident in the city. Indeed there are probably more Hughes, Williams and Owens in Liverpool than in Cardiff!
In the 19th Century, the city-centre 's Pall-Mall was known as 'Little Wales' and it was the site of the first Welsh Chapel in Liverpool, built in 1787. A later one built in Toxteth was for a long time the largest Welsh Chapel in the world. In 1813, one in every ten people in Liverpool were Welsh and a high percentage could only speak their native tongue. In the 1870's a further 50,000 Welsh people moved to the city, making Liverpool the 'unofficial' Capital of North Wales. The National Eisteddfod has been held four times in Liverpool.
Not every thing has been 'rosy' between Liverpool and Wales, Edward I used the port as an attack base, just as it was used against Ireland, and much of the timber that went into building Caernarfon Castle came from the area.
The drowning of the town of Tryweryn to create a source of water for the people of Liverpool became a focus for Welsh Nationalism. Ironically, the most outspoken Welsh Nationalist was a Liverpool-born man, Saunders Lewis.